Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!ALASKA!FNKWP From: FNKWP@ALASKA.BITNET Newsgroups: bit.listserv.frac-l Subject: Brooks/Matelski & Mandelbrot Message-ID: Date: 8 Feb 90 03:59:00 GMT Sender: 'FRACTAL' discussion list Reply-To: 'FRACTAL' discussion list Lines: 22 Approved: NETNEWS@PSUVM Gateway Comments: Original_To: BITNET%"FRAC-L@GITVM1" Homer Smith commented that Brooks and Matelski were 'on the verge' with regard to the M-set. They got a bit farther than the verge, I think. In a paper by them (The Dynamics of 2-Generator Subgroups of PSL(2,C), pub- lished in Riemann Surfaces and Related Topics, Proceedings of the 1978 Stony Brook Conference, Princeton University Press, 1980) there is a clearly recognizeable text-mode image of the M-set (page 71) composed of asterisks. It seems (based on the information I have on hand) that Brooks/ Matelski published the first image of the M-set. It also seems clear that Mandelbrot was the first person to try magnifying the set, and thus discover its fractal nature. I do not know of any subsequent papers by Brooks/Matelski on this topic--but I do not pretend to know the mathematics literature! If it comes to controversy over discovery, in which claims of priority are often given top ranking, we should all remember one thing--the interest of most of us on Frac-L in the M-set derives from Dewdney's article in the Aug '85 Scientific American, and thus (via Hubbard) from Mandelbrot's work. We are Mandelbrot's intellectual heirs. Which is not to deny credit where credit is due for the first image of the M-set--but nor should credit be denied to the person who actually _explored_ the M-set, and then informed us of his discoveries. Ken Philip